Microsoft: 'No way' PS4 has a 30% power advantage over Xbox One

Difference between two consoles 'not as great as consumers believe'; Major Nelson 'looking forward to the truth coming out' about Xbox One.

The power difference between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One "is not as great as the raw numbers lead the average consumer to believe," Xbox's senior director of marketing and planning Albert Penello has stated, leading colleague Larry Hyrb to say that he is "very much looking forward to the next few months (and beyond) as the truth comes out" about the power of Xbox One.

Discussing the two consoles on NeoGAF, Penello stated that the architecture of the two systems bring them "into balance", and claimed that if there was any major power difference "it would be obvious".

"I'm not dismissing raw performance," Penello said. "I'm stating - as I have stated from the beginning - that the performance delta between the two platforms is not as great as the raw numbers lead the average consumer to believe. There are things about our system architecture not fully understood, and there are things about theirs as well, that bring the two systems into balance.

"People DO understand that Microsoft has some of the smartest graphics programmers IN THE WORLD. We CREATED DirectX, the standard API's that everyone programs against. So while people laude Sony for their HW skills, do you really think we don't know how to build a system optimized for maximizing graphics for programmers? Seriously?

"There is no way we're giving up a 30%+ advantage to Sony. And ANYONE who has seen both systems running could say there are great looking games on both systems. If there was really huge performance difference - it would be obvious."

PlayStation 4 is believed to be more powerful than Xbox One due to the system's superior GDDR5 RAM and GPU.

But Penello believes that the war of words over performance is the same as it has been for "every generation".

"I get a ton of hate for saying this - but it's been the same EVERY generation," he continued. "Sony claims more power, they did it with Cell, they did it with Emotion Engine, and they are doing it again. And, in the end, games on our system looked the same or better."

Responding to Penello's words on Reddit, Microsoft's Larry Hryb said that his colleague was right.

"We have some of smartest programmers in the world working on Xbox One," Hryb said. "I am very much looking forward to the next few months (and beyond) as the truth comes out."